A Short Biography of Henry Dunant That Will Appeal to Readers of All Kinds Has So Far Been Lacking

A short biography of Henry Dunant that will appeal to readers of all kinds has so far been lacking. By an extraordinary stroke of luck, Pierre Boissier, Director of the Institute that bears the name of the originator of the Red Cross, had dictated an essay on those lines shortly before his death.The very day before the tragic accident in which he lost his life, he had gone through his draft and had asked Mme Yvonne de Pourtales to complete and put the finishing touches to it. This she has accomplished remarkably well in all respects. It is with pleasure that we lay before the public this valuahle literary document, which not only meets a practical need but is also the last work of a man who had devoted so much of his life to the Red Cross and to the Institute of which he was the guiding spirit. Jean PICTET President of the Henry-Dunant Institute * * * .. The man 0/ genius does not ordinarily soar easily to heights to dominate the earth, but hacks a way through a thousand ob stacles; he is long unknown, fiercely criticized and often re jected by half his generation." Franz Liszt In July 1887, a traveller, carrying nothing in his hands, crossed the border into Switzerland. Walking on, he reached after a while Heiden, a small township dominating the Lake of Con stance, with a view over lovely countryside. Some children playing in the main square paused a moment to watch his bent and sombre form go by. The stranger made his way, with listless steps, to the Hotel Paradis, where he managed to keep himself alive for some time with just a few pence. He was so poor that he had to stay in bed on the days his linen was washed, as he possessed no change of clothing. From his silvery white beard, people assumed him to be quite old, but, in fact, he was only 59 years of age at the time when poverty and wretchedness drove him to seek refuge in this place deep in the country. His health was very poor and his body was consumed by the severe hardships he had too long endured. His right hand, inflamed by eczema, was so sore and painful that he could not write. As he lay sick in bed, he was filled with bitterness and resent ment. It was not long before he was taken to the local hospital where he paid the sum of three francs a day, remitted to him by his family as soon as they got to know of the wretched condition he was in. At the hospital, he was nursed back to health, thanks to the friendly care of its Dr. Altherr and was able once more to write. He started to set down his autobiography in the large copy books such as schoolchildren use, in a bold handwriting at first which, as he grew older, showed signs of trembling, seeking to preserve his ideas from oblivion. It cannot be said that his had been a dull life: joys there had been and tragic events in plenty, but never dryness or boredom. 2 He often referred in his wntmgs to those enemies who had persecuted him and who probably were still seeking to track him down in order to torment him further. He detested all pharisaical dissemblers and hypocrites. When he died, he wanted to be " buried like a pauper ", without any of those empty ceremonial formalities which for him no longer meant anything. In the hospital at Heiden. the room he occupied bore the number 12. * * * When fortune knocks at the gate, do not hesitate to let it in. Georg Baumberger was swift to seize his chance. For a young reporter, it was a stroke of luck to have discovered that Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, was still alive. That was certainly an unexpected piece of news! Everyone thought him dead. For many years his name had not been mentioned by anyone, and now, it seemed that he was living alone like an anchorite in a village in the east of Switzerland. Baumberger lost no time, rushed off to Heiden and at the hospital was directed to room No. 12. At first, the aged Henry Dunant was not at all willing to talk to this inquisitive newspaper man. Then, all of a sudden, as if carried away by the rush of memories of the past, he held himself back no longer. Though his voice was slightly cracked, the eyes partly hidden by drooping eyelids, there was still extraordinary fire and internal vigour in this man who suddenly launched into a tale of one of the most singular and most contrasted lives that ever was. Baumberger's story created a sensation. It was reprinted in a large number of newspapers and within a few days was read all over Europe. In 1895, at the time Baumberger traced Dunant, people through out the world knew of the Red Cross. After Europe, it had gained America, Africa, Asia. Thirty-seven countries, several of which were great powers, had formed each their own National Red Cross Society, and in many cases the Societies possessed their own hos- 3 pitals, schools and ambulance trains. The Red Cross had intervened in thirty-eight armed conflicts, putting into practice its motto, .. Inter Arma Caritas ", which might at first sight have appeared almost impossible to follow. Hundreds of thousands of wounded soldiers, who but for the Red Cross would have been left to die on the battlefield, were saved from death. Forty-two states had by then signed the Geneva Convention on respect of the wounded, and jurists had come to recognize in it one of the firmest bulwarks of international law. What a contrast between the spectacular expansion of the new movement and this poverty-stricken old man suddenly emerging from his dark corner! Could it be that it was truly he who had been at the origin of all that? A few months later, on 8 May 1896, on his 68th birthday, Dunant lived a day of triumph. Messages of admiration poured in from all over the globe. The Pope was one of many eminent per sons who wrote to him in their own hand; tangible tributes of the gratitude which the whole world owed to Dunant were sent. In Germany, a public sUbscription was organized for his benefit. A congress gathering a thousand Russian doctors awarded him the .. Prix de Moscou ", in recognition of his services to suffering humanity. Switzerland and several other countries came forward with offers of assistance. He was made member or honorary presi dent of a large number of Red Cross Societies and welfare organ izations. From one day to the other, Dunant became a celebrity once more. Indifferent to fame, he refused to see any of his illustrious visitors, shut himself in against intruders and plunged with all his former energy into the struggle for international arbitration, dis armament and peace. Everywhere in Europe, people again responded to the fervour of his appeals, and in 1901 the first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded by the Norwegian Parliament to him and his old comrade-in-arms, the pacifist Fn!deric Passy. But Dunant knew well the true worth of honours and made the necessary arrangements to bequeath this wealth, in which he 4 did not wish to have any part, to charitable institutions in Switzer land and Norway. He wrote some premonitory essays on the troubled state of the world in the twentieth century, 1 saw from time to time some children and a few rare friends, and died on 30 October 1910, in the year that saw the passing away of two great figures, Florence Nightingale and Leo Tolstoy, for whom he had an equal admiration. * * * Henry Dunant was born on 8 May 1828 in Geneva. From his native town and his solid middle-class family background he acquired breeding, polish, a wide knowledge of the world and a strict Protestant education. His mother, a sister of the celebrated physicist Daniel Colladon, exerted a great influence over him, as he himself acknowledged in his Memoirs.2 Such a vast and universal humanitarian work does not develop from circumstances fortuitously.The instrument utilized must be preparedbeforehand for the work for which it is destined. She aroused in him a keen compassion for the unhappy, the humble, the oppressed, the outcasts of society. Since he was eighteen he (Dunant)devoted his spare time to visiting the needy, the handicapped, the dying, offering them aid and consolation. When he was twenty, he spent his Sunday afternoonsreading outaloud books on travel, history or elementary science to the prisonerspaying for their offences in gaol in Geneva. In short, he had begunto care for casualtiesof society struckdown by fate, in time of peace, well before concerning himself with the woundedin war. His father, Jean-Jacques Dunant, was a merchant who was also a magistrate in the Geneva Court of Wards, and from whom he learnt at an early age to do good. On leaving school, Dunant 1 In " L'avenir sanglant ", one of a collection of essays. 2 Our translation fr om the original French. The same applies to the other passages fr om Henry Dunant's letters and memoirs quoted here. 5 spent some time in a bank, learning the business. Already in 1849, under the influence of a movement known as the "Awakening " and moved by an ardent personal faith, he joined a group of young people of the Free Church and exchanged letters with similar groups in England, France, Germany, Holland and the Umted States.

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